Mark Zuckerberg to Send Thank You Notes

Businessweek has a nice interview with Mark Zuckerberg about the future of Facebook as it approaches its 10th birthday, but I am mostly obsessed with his annual birthday resolutions:

On Feb. 4, Facebook (FB), the company he co-founded in a Harvard University dorm, turns 10 years old. The prodigy himself turns 30 in May. It’s also been a decade since his first date with Priscilla Chan, now his wife, whom he first met in line for the bathroom at a Harvard fraternity party.

So last fall, Zuckerberg began typing up dozens of pages of musings, often pecking out the words on his phone. He shaped his thoughts into 3-, 5-, and 10-year plans. He also gave himself a specific goal for 2014. He’s fond of annual challenges, and in previous years he’s vowed to learn Mandarin (2010), to eat only animals he slaughtered himself (2011), and to meet someone new each day (2013). For this year he intends to write at least one well-considered thank-you note every day, via e-mail or handwritten letter.

Emphasis mine because THAT is the story I want to read about.

Oh and this is kind of nice:

Zuckerberg also has some aggressive personal goals. He’s accelerating his philanthropy and is far beyond where tech titans such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were at a similar age. His net worth exceeds $24 billion, ranking him the 26th-wealthiest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is also the youngest of the top 150. Zuckerberg and Chan recently donated $1 billion to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a local organization that gives grants to nonprofits in education, health, and the environment. In January they separately pledged $5 million to a family health center in the disadvantaged Silicon Valley community of East Palo Alto. As for a family of his own, Zuckerberg says his wife is ready and he is not. “I just want to make sure when I have kids, I can spend time with them,” he says. “That’s the whole point.”

I appreciate that! And hope he cleared that disclosure with Priscilla Chan.

Photo: Abode of Chaos

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